Commission Regulation (EU) No 642/2010 of 20 July 2010 on rules of application (cereal sector import duties) for Council Regulation (EC) No 1234/2007 (codification)
Modified by
Commission Regulation (EU) No 259/2011of 16 March 2011amending Regulation (EU) No 642/2010 on rules of application (cereal sector import duties) for Council Regulation (EC) No 1234/2007, 32011R0259, March 17, 2011
Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 643/2011of 1 July 2011amending Regulation (EU) No 642/2010 as regards import duties on sorghum and rye, 32011R0643, July 2, 2011
Commission Regulation (EU) No 642/2010of 20 July 2010on rules of application (cereal sector import duties) for Council Regulation (EC) No 1234/2007(codification)THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION,Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,Having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 1234/2007 of 22 October 2007 establishing a common organisation of agricultural markets and on specific provisions for certain agricultural products (Single CMO Regulation)OJ L 299, 16.11.2007, p. 1., and in particular Article 143 in conjunction with Article 4 thereof,Whereas:(1)Commission Regulation (EC) No 1249/96 of 28 June 1996 on rules of application (cereal sector import duties) for Council Regulation (EEC) No 1766/92OJ L 161, 29.6.1996, p. 125. has been substantially amended several timesSee Annex VIII.. In the interests of clarity and rationality the said Regulation should be codified.(2)Article 135 of Regulation (EC) No 1234/2007 provides for the common customs tariff duties to be charged when the products referred to in Article 1 thereof are imported. However, for the products referred to in Article 136(1) of that Regulation, the import duty is to be the intervention price valid for these products at the time of importation, increased by 55 % and then reduced by the cif import price applicable to the consignment.(3)For the purposes of grading imported products, the products referred to in Article 136(1) of Regulation (EC) No 1234/2007 are, in certain cases, to be classed in several standard qualities. The standard qualities to be used should therefore be determined using objective grading criteria and tolerance rates should also be set allowing products to be given the most appropriate quality grading. Of the possible objective quality grading criteria for common wheat, protein content, specific weight and miscellaneous impurity (Schwarzbesatz) content are those most commonly used in the trade and also the easiest to use. For durum wheat, these criteria are specific weight, miscellaneous impurity (Schwarzbesatz) content and vitreous grain content. Imported goods are accordingly to be subjected to analysis to determine these parameters for each lot imported. However, where the Union has established an official recognition procedure for quality certificates issued by an authority of the country of origin of the goods, these analyses should be able to be carried out merely by way of verification on a sufficiently representative number of imported lots.(4)Article 136(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1234/2007 provides that for the purposes of calculating the import duty, representative cif import prices are to be established on a regular basis for the products referred to in paragraph 1 of that Article. For the establishment of these prices, the use must be stipulated of quotations for the several wheat qualities and for the other cereals. The actual quotation sources to be used should be specified.(5)The use of quotations for the various wheat types and for other cereals on the commodity exchanges of the United States of America will provide a basis both transparent and objective for establishing representative cif import prices. The addition of the commercial premium assigned on the United States market to each quality of the various cereals will allow the exchange quotation for each cereal to be converted into a fob export price from the United States of America. By the addition of sea freight costs between the Gulf of Mexico or the Great Lakes and a port of the Union that are quoted on the freight markets, these fob prices can be converted into representative cif import prices. Given the volume of freight passing through and the amount of trade at the port of Rotterdam, this port is the destination in the Union for which sea freight quotations are most widely known, most transparent and most easily available. The port of destination to be selected for the Union should therefore be Rotterdam.(6)Accordingly, for the sake of transparency, the representative cif import prices referred to in Article 136(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1234/2007, are to be established from commodity exchange quotations for the cereal in question plus the commercial premium assigned to the cereal and sea freight costs between the Gulf of Mexico or the Great Lakes and the port of Rotterdam. However, freight cost differences by port of destination justify flat rate adjustment of the import duty for Union ports located on the Mediterranean and on the Black Sea, on the Atlantic coast of the Iberian Peninsula, in the United Kingdom and in Ireland, in the Nordic countries, in the Baltic States and in Poland. The factors of calculation of the representative cif import prices so established should be monitored daily so that the trend of these prices can be followed. In the case of sorghum and rye, the representative cif import price calculated for barley allows the market situation for those two products to be estimated and consequently the representative cif import price determined for barley applies for these cereals.(7)For the purpose of setting the import duty on the cereals referred to in Article 136 of Regulation (EC) No 1234/2007 a period of 10 working days recording of the representative cif import prices for each cereal will reflect market trends without introducing uncertainty. Import duties for these products can therefore be determined on the fifteenth day and the last working day of each month using the average representative cif import price recorded over that period. The import duty thus calculated can be applied for two weeks without any appreciable distorting effect on the duty paid import price. However, if no exchange quotation is available during the calculation period for the representative cif import prices or if as a result of sudden changes in the components of the calculation of import duty they fluctuate very substantially during the period of calculation, action must be taken to maintain a properly representative price for the product in question. In the case of large fluctuations in either the exchange quotation, the commercial premiums attached to the quotation, the sea freight costs or the rate of exchange used to calculate the representative cif import price of the product, the price used for calculation of the import duty should be kept representative by means of an adjustment corresponding to the deviation from it that these changes account for. Even where this type of adjustment is made, the timing of the next determination need not be affected.(8)In the case of imports of flint maize, the exchange quotation used for calculation of the representative cif import price may not, either because of the particular quality of the goods or because their price includes a quality premium over the normal price, take account of the existence of such a premium over normal market terms. To take account of that quality premium over prices or quotations importers who show that they have used the goods to make high quality products justifying the existence of such a premium should be reimbursed, at a flat rate, part of the import duty paid.(9)In order to ensure that importers respect the provisions of this Regulation security should be required from them additional to that pertaining to licences.(10)The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Management Committee for the Common Organisation of Agricultural Markets,HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION: